ABSTRACT
Russia’s efforts to reach a certain equilibrium in its foreign policy were from the beginning in conflict with the Comintern, the main target of all anti-Bolshevik propaganda abroad. In Britain, the revolutionary policy of the Comintern was unpopular and the British Communist Party had little influence among the workers. The economists, diplomats, and administrators of the Party, busy seeking new trade relations, felt themselves frustrated by Zinoviev’s Comintern, which blocked their efforts to improve political relations with the capitalist world. In Britain, the Zinoviev Letter had been an important factor in returning the Tories to power, and its effect in Russia was hardly less. Zinoviev was defended in all official statements against the foreign attack, but inside the Party, and particularly in its higher brackets, the incident was used to intensify the campaign against the Comintern and its leaders.
